Canisia Lubrin wins overall OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
It is the second consecutive year that a poet has won the most prestigious international annual award for Caribbean writing, and the fourth work of poetry to win in the 11-year history of the prize.
published by Penguin Random House Canada, was chosen by the judges, who included Forward Poetry Prize winner and chief judge Trinidadian Vahni Capildeo, Jamaican poet and academic Opal Palmer Adisa, Trinidadian-american writer and scholar Rosamond S King, and Malachi Mcintosh, editor of the
The Dyzgraphxst,
Uk-based literary journal The announcement was made during the Trinidad Bocas Lit Fest, held virtually April 23 to 25, 2021. This was the second year in which the festival was being held online in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Lubrin’s booklength poem, was chosen from a shortlist of three category winners announced in March, which included a shortlist of the three books previously selected as category winners, which included Jamaican-born Maisy
Card’s debut novel
and Trinidadian Andre Bagoo’s wide-ranging collection of essays
Card and Bagoo will receive awards of US$3,000 each.
Lubrin, a writer, editor, and teacher,
The Dyzgraphxst,
Family
Wasafiri.
These Ghosts Are
The Undiscovered Country. is the third St Lucian-born writer to win the overall prize. The late Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott was winner of the inaugural prize in 2011, for the poetry collection and in 2015, Vladimir Lucien took the honour for his debut poetry collection
White Egrets,
Sounding Ground.